Video Monkey

Video Monkey is a Mac-only application for the conversion of video between a variety of formats. It borrows concepts from the great, but now defunct Video Hub software.

While they probably mean VisualHub, I'm not sure this is using it's open sourced code. Video Monkey, which I didn't try yet is only at version 0.1 as of this post so it's something to watch but not something to rely on day to day.

I didn't install it because it comes wrapped up in a .pkg file and I've never liked installers exploding files all over the place, although the installer just as the application within it. So, I extracted it via Pacifist and here are the screenshots:




As you can see lots of export options are greyed out and there are the handy "Check Box 1" and "Check Box 2" already checked for you. If the developer keeps this app updated and actually adds in all the greyed out export options this could be the next VisualHub. However, my first test failed when it failed to recognize a .flv I dragged into it.

Super-Quick Way to Import CD (RedBook) Audio

Here's a quick one:

If you need to "rip" some music from a CD a client has burned off as a regular (RedBook) audio CD, don't bother going into iTunes or QuickTime or anything like that. Just pop the CD into the Mac, open it up in the Finder and Drag the audio files to your project's media folder, then load them into FCP.

The process of dragging them from the CD's window in the Finder to your Media folder (or anywhere else) rips them as .AIF files automatically.

How to keep HD Aspect Ratios when exporting to SD

Apple updated a little article today called "How to maintain aspect ratio when exporting high definition formats to standard definition".

It helps you figure out how to export an HD project to an SD file and still maintain it's proper aspect ratio. It basically says use a Reference Movie for non-IMX formats and create a new preset for IMX exports.